Improved apparatus foe bending metallic plates



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l Letters Patent No. 74,880, dated February 25, 1868.

turnover-APPARATUS ron BENDING METALLIC PLATES.

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To ALL WHOM IT MAY ooNcEnN:

Be it known that I, JOHN W. BEAN, of Henry, in the county of Marshall, and State of Illinois, have r invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Bending and Hardening of Metal Plates; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings making part of this specification, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, like letters indicating like parts wherever they occur. 1

To enable others skilled in the art to construct and-use my invention, I will proceed to describe it. Myinvention consists in an improvement in the construction of plates for bending and holding ploughplates While being tempered, and an arrangement of levers and devices for operating the same to bend the plates, as hereinafter described. I Figure 1 is a perspective view, and

Figure 2 a transverse vertical lsection of the improved device used in my process. i

It is customary, in making the mould-boards for steel ploughs and cultivators, to first cut the plates of the required form, then press or bend them into the required form, after which they are hardened by the usual process. It is necessary that these plates shall be precisely alike in form, in order to tit the frames or standards to which they are bolted, and wl1ic h,iin the case ofploughs, are usually made of cast iron, and being rigid will not yield. It is found in practice that when thelihot plates are immersed in water or other liquid, for the purpose of hardening them, they are apt to spring more or less, and thus get out of shape; and as it is desirable to make them very hard, in order to wear well, any subsequent attempt to change their form by springing or bending them is very apt to crack or break them. To remedy these didiculties, -and insure the bending of the plates to the exact form required, and keep them so while being hardened, is the object of my invention. i

To accomplish this, I make a clamp, consisting ot' two plates, A and E, corresponding in form to the shape ofthe article when finished, which in this case is supposed to be a mould-board for a plough. These plates may be hinged together on their rear edge, as shown at f, and provided with handles C B, as represented. On their inner surfaces these plates are provided with a series of ribs or projections, e, as shown, with'spaces between them. The plate, after being heated, is placed' between the plates A E, whichare then shut together, .as shown in tig. 2, and thereby of course bending the plate c, which lies between them, to the Vrequired form. The plate thus bent orformed is thenl taken out and heated to the proper degree, when it is again placed in the mould or clamps, and the wholeitogether is then plunged into the cooling-liquid. rJ'rhe plate e, resting on the ribs e, is held firmly in place, while the liquid ows readily and freely between the ribs, thus coming at once in contact with the surfaces of the plate, and thereby cooling and hardening lthe same, without springing or warping it in the least. In this manner I am enabled to produce any number of plates of perfect uniformity.

In making mouldboards and cultivator-teeth or shovels, I mount the clamp on a low table, I, having a block, D, for it to rest on, and hook the rear side fast by means of a rod, o, while the upper plate may be drawn down by a lever, II, and rod l, as shown in tig. 2. i

It is obvious, however, that the devices may be varied to suit the circumstances of the case, and according to the article to be made. In bonding and hardening large plates for other purposes, it may be necessary to have the dies o r clamps secured inland operated by a power-press, and to have it so arranged that the whole may he lon'ercdinto a suitable tank, by means of pulleys, and swung around by 'a crank; but these are details not necessary to bc herein described, as the person using my invention will of course arrange them as he `may Ldeem best.

I aman'nrc that fra-mes consisting of independent bars, united at their ends like a grifliron, have hereto` fore been used for holding plateswhilo 'beinginscrted in a tempering-bath, and such I do not claim; but having thus described my invention,

.what I claim, is-.- u

The improved `apparatus for bending and tempering plough and similar plates, when constructedI and arranged in its several parts substantially as described.

lJOHN w. BEAN.

Witnesses :I

W. GALLAHER, L R. BAGULEY. 

